At this late date, it feels extremely strange to cover the rollout for a new Morrissey album as if that was a regular thing, but newsworthy stuff just keeps happening with that rollout. Last month, Morrissey announced that he’s found a label, Sire/Warner, willing to release Make-Up Is A Lie, an album that he recorded back in 2023. We posted the lead single and everything. Today, there’s another new Morrissey single, and we feel compelled to post that one, too, if only to note that Morrissey is no longer using this song to sing about “terrorism.”
Morrissey’s new single is a swirling, disco-influenced synthpop track called “Notre-dame.” The song is all about the fire that damaged the Paris cathedral in 2019. It’s less verbose than most Morrissey tracks, and it seems to be fixated on the idea that the fire was intentionally set, that the truth is being kept from us: “Notre-Dame, we know who tried to kill you/ Notre-Dame, we will not be silent.” But the song no longer has the word “terrorism” among its lyrics.
As Far-Out points out, Morrissey sang “Notre-dame” live a few times in 2023. At those shows, the song included this line: “Before investigations, they said, ‘It’s not terrorism.'” On the studio version, he’s replaced it with this: “Before investigations, they said, ‘There’s nothing to see here.'” I feel like the implication still comes through pretty loudly. (We still don’t no the cause for the first at Notre-Dame, which has since been repaired and reopened, but authorities generally believe that the blaze was accidental.) Hear “Notre-dame” for yourself below.
Make-Up Is A Lie is out 3/6 via Sire/Warner.
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